时時 shí — time; an hour; a season; when, at the time of

shí

Traditional: 時

time; an hour; a season; when, at the time of

7 strokesRadical 日Frequency #29

Words containing 时 Character writing lab Ask the AI tutor

Pinyin

shí (second tone, rising)

time; an hour; a season; when, at the time of

Character breakdown

Ideographic description

⿰日寸The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.

日meaning partThe sun: before clocks, time was read from where it stood.
寸shape partno entry yetIn the traditional 時 this position holds 寺 sì, which supplied the sound. The simplified form keeps only the bottom of it, 寸, so the right-hand side is now a graphic abbreviation and no longer gives the reading.

Mnemonic

The sun on the left is the clock — for most of the character’s life, telling the time meant reading the sun. The right-hand side is where the traditional 時 kept its phonetic 寺 sì; simplification cut that down to 寸, so the reading now has to be learned outright. It builds the everyday words for time: 时间, 小时, 时候, 有时候.

A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.

时/時 shí — time; an hour; a season; when, at the time of

Pinyin

Character breakdown

Mnemonic

Words containing 时

Radical 日 — other characters

时時 shí — time; an hour; a season; when, at the time of